The increasing popularity of personal recreational vehicles such as personal watercraft, snowmobiles, all terrain vehicles and other similar vehicles have presented unique problems for the transportation and storage of these vehicles. Often these vehicles are stored in a location remote from the area where the vehicle will be used and the vehicle must be transported over relatively long distances. Many jurisdictions prohibit the operation of these types of vehicles on public highways, so typically an automobile is used to transport the vehicle to the intended destination.
A common method of transporting these vehicles is to load the vehicle onto a trailer and attach the trailer to the rear of a car or a truck. Trailer type transportation devices suffer from the drawback that a separate and often expensive trailer and trailer hitch must be purchased and installed on the truck. Moreover devices of this type are cumbersome and difficult for one person to maneuver manually, and generally require more than one person to load and unload the vehicle onto the trailer.
A method of transporting these vehicles involves loading the vehicle onto the bed of a pick-up truck or similar truck. An example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,546 to Schmoling, which is incorporated herein by reference. This patent discloses an apparatus for loading a personal watercraft onto a bed of a pick-up truck using a telescopic rail and pulley system. The vehicle is loaded and unloaded on the rail system. A winch and pulley assembly is utilized to allow a single individual to load or unload the vehicle onto the truck.
When this type of system is used for watercraft, the rails rest in shallow water and the pulley system is used to lower the watercraft into the water. Once the rail system is engaged, it is difficult to maneuver or move the truck forwards or backwards so as to load or unload the vehicle at the proper depth of water at the shoreline. While the truck can be moved forward by dragging the rails, this is generally not desirable as the rails and/or the surrounding terrain can be damaged by this action. Moreover, it is difficult to move the truck in a reverse or backwards direction as the rails are generally positioned at a downward angle from the rear of the truck to rest on the shore of the body of water. The rails resist any movement backwards and tend to dig into the ground if the truck is moved backwards, so that any backwards movement of the truck would risk damaging the rails. Thus, the vehicle must either be in a fully loaded or fully unloaded position and the rails removed before the truck can be moved forward or backward.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,321 to Long et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a similar type of ramp and winch system which suffers from the same disadvantages as described in connection with U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,546 to Schmoling. In addition, this system may be unstable when the vehicle is loaded onto the truck as a result of an unusually high center of gravity.
It would accordingly be advantageous to provide a transportation and storage apparatus which allows for the loading and unloading of vehicles from a carrier where the carrier can be moved forwards or backwards without having to completely load or unload the vehicle. In particular, it would be advantageous to provide a vehicle transportation and storage apparatus which allows the carrier to be moved forwards or backwards without having to first remove or store the ramp.